


Got So Close To Love (i can almost taste the kill)

by fade_like_starlight



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Multi, spoilers in the tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-07
Updated: 2013-03-07
Packaged: 2017-12-04 13:51:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/711453
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fade_like_starlight/pseuds/fade_like_starlight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve wants Darcy, but she's with Clint.</p><p>Clint wants Darcy, but she's with Steve.</p><p>Inspired by my unintentionally bitter playlist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It Started Out With A Kiss (it was only a kiss)

**Author's Note:**

> Story title is from 'Close to Love', by Girls Aloud.  
> Chapter 1 title and inspiration from 'Mr Brightside', by The Killers  
> Chapter 2 title from 'Rumour Has It', by Adele  
> Chapter 3 title from 'Someone In My Bed', by Sugababes.

It started out with a kiss, in the hallways of SHIELD, after a mission. Steve didn’t mean to see it, didn’t want to see it, but he did, and there was no going back after that.

After that, he tried not to track them, tried not to watch as Darcy would rest a hand on Clint’s arm as she read reports over his shoulder, or how Clint’s eyes would light up and his shoulders would relax when Darcy entered the room. 

Nobody noticed that Steve’s eyes clouded over, or that his shoulders tensed up when he saw them sitting together at dinner, at meetings, in the cafeteria. 

He didn’t know if the kiss turned to something more. He didn’t want to know, but he couldn’t stop himself conjuring up the images. He knew how it would go. It would be after a mission, after they’d all sat around Stark Tower eating and drinking and relaxing. Darcy would talk about going home, Pepper would insist it was too late and she should just stay. 

Clint would ignore them, head up to the roof for one final smoke. 

Darcy would slip out the door a few minutes later, noticed by no-one but Steve. 

She would open the door, and he would be there waiting for her, reaching out a hand. 

She would take it, stealing his cigarette. 

He would push the hair back from her forehead. 

She would trace the bruise under his eye. 

He would lean in to kiss her. 

She would curl her hand around his neck. 

He would stub the cigarette out. 

She would open the door. 

He would lead her back to his bedroom. 

She would have her hands on his waist, lifting his shirt. 

He would slip her dress over her head. 

They would fall back onto the bed. 

Steve would bury his head in his hands and try to erase the images from his mind.


	2. She Made Your Heart Melt (you're cold to the core)

He knows it can’t last. Well, actually, he knows it won’t start. Because she’s young and beautiful and vibrant and happy, and he’s not.

Clint kissed Darcy once, after a mission, when they’d won, and he was hyped up, and need to kiss someone, or shoot something. She kissed him back, because she was young, and happy, and couldn’t recognize what lay hidden inside him.

She leans over him when he reads the paper in the morning, teases him about ink on his fingers. He watches her - Steve watches her - as she reaches to the high shelf for the cereal she hides from Tony, and she knows they watch, and she stretches to her toes, even though it’s not necessary.

He sneaks up to the roof after dinner, after they’ve all gone their separate ways, holding a single cigarette. She follows, takes his hand, steals his smoke. He lets her.

It shouldn’t happen like this. Clint is older, damaged, doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s forgotten how to be what she deserves.

Darcy deserves someone like Steve, a bright and shining example of everything that’s good in the world.

Clint takes his cigarette back, stubs it out in the planter, knowing Tony will yell at him in the morning. Darcy opens the door, lets him through, follows him back to the living areas. He turns left, towards his room. She turns right, towards hers. Towards Steve’s.

Clint lies on his bed and tries to tell himself it’s better this way.


	3. Someone In My Bed (must be something that I said)

Darcy isn’t in the kitchen when Clint enters. Steve is, though, moodily staring at his coffee. Clint nods, opens the cupboard to look for bread, or fruit, or a weapon of mass destruction. He’s not sure.

Steve watches the milk froth swirl around his coffee mug, his thoughts swirling just as furiously. Clint seems tired, angry. Steve doesn’t want to read into it, but he’s made an art of studying Clint’s moods over the last couple of weeks noting how he acts before and after a Darcy encounter. Steve knows it’s obsessive and crazy and not healthy.

Clint sits at the table, slicing an apple, in a seat that gives him a perfect view of the hall leading to the bedrooms. And the doors leading to the bedrooms. He’s not stalking her. He doesn’t even care which bedroom she departs. Clint’s not watching.

Steve can see all the doors to the bedrooms from his seat. He knows Clint can, too. 

They eat breakfast and pretend they aren’t waiting for her to emerge from the other’s room.

They don’t have to wait too long. Darcy opens a door, peeks out. They both stare at their plates intently. She runs down the hall to her room, clutching her jeans in one hand and her shoes in the other. She disappears through the door and Clint looks at Steve.

‘Well, I feel like an idiot,’ he says.

‘You didn’t know she was with -’ Steve asks.

‘Nope,’ Clint says, offering Steve a piece of apple. ‘If I did, probably wouldn’t have spent the last few nights tearing my hair out thinking she was with you.’

‘Huh,’ Steve says, taking the apple. ‘Me too, I guess. You know. With you.’

The door that Darcy just closed opens again, and Steve and Clint watch as Natasha slinks out. ‘Boys,’ she greets them as she pours herself a juice. ‘Sleep well?’

‘Fuck off, Tasha,’ Clint says without malice.

‘With pleasure,’ she says. As she pours a second glass of juice, she continues: ‘Consider this a lesson. Next time, say something. Don’t waste time worrying about what might happen.’ She leaves and heads back down the hall, knocking on Darcy’s door.

Steve sighs.

‘I hear ya,’ Clint says. ‘Women, man. Fuck.’ He shakes his head. ‘Wanna spar?’

Steve shrugs. ‘Sure. Why the hell not?’ Clint slings an arm over Steve’s shoulder and they head to the gym.


End file.
